A New Hope

This is the continuation of my End of the World thread, which grew and grew and grew 'til it exploded. Or at least until it reached 100 pages and I was asked to create a sequel!

So, why A New Hope?

Yeah, it's a Star Wars reference, and it goes a little deeper. A New Hope is the first ever Star Wars movie, which used computers for very little, and yet the new ones use CG all the time. This is a kind of chronicle of my life. From a few doodles in pen and pencil, to using 3D for my art. It also covers my new attitudes quite well. I have changed recently, for the better I believe, and I am more focused. Therefore I have a new hope.

The essence of these threads is still one about 3D art, and Daz products, but we (being myself and the Daz administrators, bless 'em) are a lot less bothered about staying on topic and a lot more bothered with keeping a fun environment in which we can all learn something together, at anyone's pace. One minute we can be talking about modelling a 3D washing machine, the next we can be talking about taking too many codeine!

It's a place where everyone is welcome, whatever level of 3D mastery, and be in the warm loving embrace of... oh dear, that sounds a bit crap, we can edit that out, right?

It's a place where everyone is welcome, whatever level of 3D mastery, and rest assured that the same amount of respect will be shown.

So happy we made it over to the new thread. Never questioned that it would happen though. I like the new title "A New Hope." Good choice, Barry.

Why thank you :D

Ok, so, first proper 3D related post.

In Hexagon, if I was to model a wall, then model a door surround in the wall, would I not be able to simply select the bit in the doorway and delete it? Or am I thinking too much like a 2D artist there?

That's what booleans do (well in Bryce anyway). But I don't know how to use booleans in Hex. In Bryce is how I make doorways. I make a cube the size of the doorway, make it negative and group it with the wall, and hey presto, dorrway. Like magic.

But I expect Hex does it in some sort of hexamagical way totally different to that. Shout for Andy, I expect he will know.

That's what booleans do (well in Bryce anyway). But I don't know how to use booleans in Hex. In Bryce is how I make doorways. I make a cube the size of the doorway, make it negative and group it with the wall, and hey presto, dorrway. Like magic.

But I expect Hex does it in some sort of hexamagical way totally different to that. Shout for Andy, I expect he will know.

Yeah, see, people who model in Hex and such think Booleans are evil, which is why I'm trying to avoid them.

Well congrats BBS yet another thread. As for the modeling does and don'ts I say if the software supports it it must be for a reason. Good way or not who cares as long as the job gets done and done well?

Well congrats BBS yet another thread. As for the modeling does and don'ts I say if the software supports it it must be for a reason. Good way or not who cares as long as the job gets done and done well?

It's the "done well" bit that scares me. If I start modelling with bad habits, I'll carry on that way and lose respect.

Truth be told, I have the same attitude as you, but if there's a good reason people don't use bools then I'll have to come up with something else. It can't be that difficult, people do it all the time, I just don't know my tools yet.

That's what booleans do (well in Bryce anyway). But I don't know how to use booleans in Hex. In Bryce is how I make doorways. I make a cube the size of the doorway, make it negative and group it with the wall, and hey presto, dorrway. Like magic.

But I expect Hex does it in some sort of hexamagical way totally different to that. Shout for Andy, I expect he will know.

Yeah, see, people who model in Hex and such think Booleans are evil, which is why I'm trying to avoid them.

Bryce is one of the few programs that I would say it's ok to use booleans. Most modelers it makes a mess first of all, and the basic concept of modeling in Bryce is somewhat different then other modelers. One doesn't usually make models in Bryce to sell to be used in a wide range of environments and circumstances that is typical of other modeling programs.

The typically more constrained environment of Bryce models being used mostly inside Bryce, the fact that Bryce has better boolean algorithms then many modelers, and that most are static meshes all contribute to their use being more stable.

Well In Hex I just Add Verts as needed and then Delete the faces not needed no Bools needed. Once you play with Hex enough and check out some of the Tut's (I'll hunt you some good ones) it is easy. I then copy the WALL with a hole, move the second one, Select all the edges on both and then Weld the two faces together. Easy.

Hex is very nice for slicing and dicing meshes once you get the hang of it. One of the main tips I can offer is, model in low poly as much as possible.. only add detail after the basic shape is solid topo and otherwise. It gets increasingly harder to manipulate meshes as they go up in polygon count.

There are some good tutorials where they show using smoothing to see how a mesh is progressing, backing the smoothing off again to tweek low poly, and cycling that way till the mesh is solid. There are also some good tutorials as Jadrail said on specifically cutting/welding meshes, adding edge loops to control smoothing...

Hex is very nice for slicing and dicing meshes once you get the hang of it. One of the main tips I can offer is, model in low poly as much as possible.. only add detail after the basic shape is solid topo and otherwise. It gets increasingly harder to manipulate meshes as they go up in polygon count.

There are some good tutorials where they show using smoothing to see how a mesh is progressing, backing the smoothing off again to tweek low poly, and cycling that way till the mesh is solid. There are also some good tutorials as Jadrail said on specifically cutting/welding meshes, adding edge loops to control smoothing...

That's fantastic, thanks for that Gedd. I'm looking at some tutorials, but right now it seems my broadband is on a go-slow so I'm going to simply start playing with things until I break them for a while.

I need a glossary of terms I think. Once I've got the lingo and jargon sorted I'll probably find my way around quite quickly. Gonna have a play.

Ye dogs, your Broadband is on a go slow, what chance does that leave me with as I have to wait for BT signals to struggle up this mountain from the next valley over.

Mine isn't usually that bad, but tonight it seems like it's coming quite literally by snail mail!

Modelling... I seem to have got the whole idea wrong. But I think now that I understand where I'm going wrong I can solve it and that makes me a very happy bunny.

My problem was that I wanted to draw my shape onto the wall and delete it. What I should be doing is splitting my wall into smaller chunks, cutting out a big chunk, adding points to the outside of the hole and manipulating those until I get the right shape. I think.

I stink at modeling i Hexz and Carrara. Wings is a lot easier, but it's not as advanced. You just click Extrude and then click X, Y, or Z and just move the mouse instead of click and drag stuff.

Hex has a great lathe and extrude feature, you just need to learn them. Hex is really a very powerful modeler once you do a few of the Tut's it's not hard. Sure I only use it to tweak a morph or do simple props I send to it from Daz but I find it easy to use. With just two days of tut's and playing I can do everything I want except UV maps. That's going to be my next goal. Then I could make much better props.

I stink at modeling i Hexz and Carrara. Wings is a lot easier, but it's not as advanced. You just click Extrude and then click X, Y, or Z and just move the mouse instead of click and drag stuff.

Hex has a great lathe and extrude feature, you just need to learn them. Hex is really a very powerful modeler once you do a few of the Tut's it's not hard. Sure I only use it to tweak a morph or do simple props I send to it from Daz but I find it easy to use. With just two days of tut's and playing I can do everything I want except UV maps. That's going to be my next goal. Then I could make much better props.
I'm trying to find some tuts from the lists on this forum but a lot of them go to a 404, which sucks a bit.

A couple really good ones to start with I find are the clothing ones... If it's in your budget you might want to get Fugazi's Genesis Starter Kit and Classic Bikini from the store. His workflow shows some good information about the various tools and topology issues that are very helpful even if not making clothing. The fact you learn to make clothing also is a bonus. It might go on sale again if there's a catch-up portion to the PA sale.

You might want to start with the first couple I listed and/or Fugazi's as they cover some basics whereas some of the others don't spend as much time going over the basics but rather jump right into a particular example.

Hexagon has extrude, lathe, polylines, coons patches.. tons of tools. As Jadrail said, it just takes getting familiar with them and using the best one for the job. The same task can be done many ways, but there are more efficient and less efficient ways to do a given task.

A couple really good ones to start with I find are the clothing ones... If it's in your budget you might want to get Fugazi's Genesis Starter Kit and Classic Bikini from the store. His workflow shows some good information about the various tools and topology issues that are very helpful even if not making clothing. The fact you learn to make clothing also is a bonus. It might go on sale again if there's a catch-up portion to the PA sale.

You might want to start with the first couple I listed and/or Fugazi's as they cover some basics whereas some of the others don't spend as much time going over the basics but rather jump right into a particular example.

I know about Geeksatplay, which is why I was a little confused. After picking up the knowledge that Booleans are bad, the first thing a Geeksatplay tut tells me to do is cut a door out of a cube using Booleans.

I did some reading when I went to bed last night about polygon modeling and I think I'm on the right path now, but yeah, gonna take a while to play with Hex enough to understand everything. Looking forward to it.

@Jeff: A render, woot! And a day off, even more woot! I'm visiting a friend again today, and then when I get back I'm playing with Hex 'til I break it!

I don't think booleans are bad, that was just another case of our resident Carrara trol. . . . . uhm expert JM2000 stirring up another lengthy discussion, it is just often easier to do things other ways.
I have never tried them in Hex as Hex does not play nice with me.

I have textures I have never found the clothing for,
well, I just found the textures in the shop and I do indeed own the clothing they are for!
so I reset my download for it so I could rerun the installer to find out where the hell in my runtime they are!!